Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...

But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.

Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who-or what-is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?

I was a little disappointed in the book because I didn’t find it scary. I found this book on a list for scary Halloween books so I was expecting it to be one of those “I have to finish this tonight or I’m not going to be able to get any sleep” books, and it was not. I did enjoy the book, it was just more mysterious than scary. There was a fair amount of predictability in the book, however their was a nice twist at the end that makes me want to read the second book, Reliquary. I enjoyed most of the characters, even the bad ones, but they could have been more developed.

I know that the economy sucks and tons of people are looking for a job. But some of these people are setting themselves up for failure. I receive a gazillion applications a week, I can afford to be picky about whom to interview.

In the last month here are the problems I’ve encountered:

1. 6 digit phone number. Sadly more than once – how do you expect to get a job if you don’t know your own number. Same thing for numbers that no longer work.

2. Lying about work history. There is a reason why job history is on the application. We want to check your references. Don’t say you worked somewhere when you didn’t. And don’t double the time you worked there either. I can understand if you are off by a little (who remembers that stuff anyway?) but 9 months??? No. I don’t think so. (SN: I actually had someone tell me that their job history was none of my business)

3. Being late. Seriously, if you can’t be on time for the interview, how can I expect you to be on time for work?

And the best for last:

An applicant was over the age of 18, but had no job history. I call to ask if they have worked before because sometimes people are too lazy to fill it out (not a good sign) or they hit the wrong button and complete their application. This person has never had a job before. My follow up question: When did you graduate? Answer: 2003.

What have you been doing since 2003?????

So if you’re out there looking for a job, good luck, and remember to fill out the application correctly!

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? This really depends on the person I guess I would say to alternate genres so you don’t get bored of reading the same type of thing all day.

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope. I enjoyed it immensely :)

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I loved the challenges, and the cheerleaders, especially the late night ones.

How many books did you read? 6

What were the names of the books you read? Relic, Under the Dome, Dedication, America (The Book), The Confession, Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Which book did you enjoy most? Under the Dome

Which did you enjoy least? Relic – I was expecting something a little different than what I got, but it was not a bad book.

If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I was not a cheerleader, but thinking about doing it next time.

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I will definitely be doing it as a reader and maybe as a Cheerleader as well.

Call it what you want. Maybe it was the neighbors dog. Maybe it was the birds. Or maybe it was just fate. I woke up at 6:30 just in time to get another 90 minutes of reading in. Too lazy to get out of bed I reached for my ereader and started The Confession by Grisham. Check off another 147 pages. (I definitely read faster when I’m not tired! I aslo forgot to mention in my last post the 220 pages I read in America (The Book) by Jon Stewart.

Unfortuantely not much reading got done (about 100 pages) and the Badger game was a bust. I did take a short nap so I will hopefully last longer. I’m currently watching Hocus Pocus (my favorite halloween movie) and reading Dedication, it’s pretty good so far. I’m hoping to finish this book before I can’t keep my eyes open any longer.

1. What are you reading right now? Just finished Under the Dome by King. Next Dedication by McLaughlin and Kraus

2. How many books have you read so far? Finished 2 that I had already started.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Either Dedication or Hold Tight by Harlan Coben or The Confession by Grisham. Too many to choose.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? Nope, I was already off.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Only a couple of phone calls, used them as breaks for reading.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? That I am having fun. It’s so much more than I thought it was

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? Well, I will not pick any large books. Finishing the last half of Under the Dome was a lot of effort and I think I would rather have short or at least regular sized books that I can finish in a couple hours. I would get better snacks, I didn’t shop for this at all.

9. Are you getting tired yet? yes, but not a lot

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? nope, not yet anyway.

And… I’m done :) Finished Under the Dome!!! I enjoyed the book and I can see myself picking up another King book in the future. While in high school I read a lot of Christopher Pike books, which I guess I would classify as teen horror, and thought I could move to adult horror and that just didn’t pan out. I never made it very far into the Tommyknockers before I abandoned it out of fear. I haven’t tried horror since then until now, and I find that I am not really that scared, I find it suspensful. Perhaps I will pick up the Tommyknockers and put that old fear to rest.

Now it’s time to enjoy the badger game while starting a new book, Dedication by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus.